This section is intended to provide a background or context to the invention that is recited in the claims. The description herein may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived, implemented or described. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the description and claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
A situation can occur where a core network is overloaded or a radio access network node. e.g., a base station or a NodeB or an evolved NodeB (eNB) or some core network element such as MME in the LTE system, is overloaded or nearly overloaded. In this case the network can use RRC signaling, such as a RRC Connection Rejection or Connection Release message to prevent a new UE from having RRC connection to the network. When this occurs the UE may follow a normal cell re-selection procedure and typically will remain in the same cell as it stays in the strongest cell. After some period of time the UE will retry to make a connection to the network. However, for as long as the network rejects the RRC Connection Request from the UE the UE will be out of service from the user point of view as it cannot establish any type of data or voice connection to the network. As can be appreciated, an inability of the UE to connect to the network for some indeterminate period of time can be viewed negatively by the user.